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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 17, 2004
Latest Update: May 17, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Therapeutic Corporation

Essay based on:

The Therapeutic Corporation Oxford Press Website. New approach to answerability in corporations. By James Tucker, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. 1999.

Description

"A growing number of contemporary organizations have management structures that are less centralized and hierarchical than the traditional bureaucratic model. This book takes a close look inside one such organization: an employee-owned manufacturing corporation. It addresses the question of how conflicts are handled when bureaucracy is greatly reduced--and its findings will surprise and enlighten many readers. Therapy, a behavior or practice normally thought to be confined to the offices of psychiatrists and the wards of mental hospitals, turns out to be the most common way of handling conflict in the postbureaucratic work environment. James Tucker reveals that this therapeutic system of social control contrasts sharply, and tellingly, with the more authoritative--often violent--systems of social control found in more centralized and hierarchical work settings, especially those of the past."

As we slowly learn to adapt to a world that has grown too large and unconstrained to tolerate non-answerability, experiments in more human approaches to organization and community life are taking place. Tucker describes one of them. Interestingly, the experiment describes relies on a therapeutic approach. Therapy, like politics is personal. Who determines the therapy; who determines the goal; who determines the right of an Other to interfere in one's life.

Of course, education, especially banking or training education has already entered our lives to a pervasive extent. We no longer think there is anything "wrong" with "training" us to perform. I just came across this text from the IVSA listserv, because I don't usually teach sociology of work, though it borders on and pervades all that I do teach. I'll try to get the book soon and summarize some bits, and start asking questions. It will undoubtedly form part of our discussions in moot court, in agencies, and in women in poverty, well, and in law.

Aside from my first response of "fear of training," my second is "thank goodness, that means someone has to listen." That alone would be a corporate wonder. I'm hoping for the best. The book was out in 1999, so you might be able to find it in the library.